We Were Never Here quickly turns into a fast-paced and compulsive story. I really enjoyed peeling back the layers of Emily and Kristen’s friendship - it felt like the stakes were always high and consistent throughout, every time something new was revealed or brought to the light, it further reiterated how dangerous Kristen truly was. As time goes on and you go from chapter to chapter, Kristen’s obsessive tendencies slowly start to rear their ugly head and it definitely had my anxiety through the roof. All of this left me wondering how Emily was going to get herself out of that friendship alive, no pun intended!

The constant gaslighting and manipulation also made my head spin! I found myself actually questioning, justifying, and completely dismissing things right alongside Emily because of how well she was being gaslit into believing certain delusions. I thought I was for sure reading from an unreliable narrator, but that definitely wasn’t the case. And for that, I have to give Bartz her tens because that probably isn’t an easy feat as an author or as a writer. I liked the fact that the writing style truly played with my psyche, as a psychological thriller should.